Exploring a New World of 3D Printed Product Realism with Flexible Color Digital Materials

Today we’re excited to unveil Stratasys’ extended range of flexible and rigid material options for theObjet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D Printer. With these new color palettes, Stratasys is continuing to expand your ability to improve the look, feel and functionality of your 3D printed parts.

The new offerings comprise six flexible material palettes,  featuring  more than 200 vibrant color shades  in a wide range of Shore A values and opacities. There are also four new rigid gray and color palettes – three 45-color rigid gray palettes, each  combining rigid white (VeroWhite) and black (VeroBlack) with colors, and one 45-hue gray palette with varying levels of translucency.

We caught up with Boaz Jacobi, Stratasys Product Marketing Manager, to help illuminate Stratasys’ wonderful world of color and multi-material opportunities.

Stratasys Blog: What new possibilities does this extended range of material options bring to additive manufacturing?

 

 

 

Jacobi:  The Objet500 Connex3, already the most versatile 3D printer on the market, can now leverage over 1,000 color options and virtually unlimited combinations of flexible, rigid and translucent-to-opaque colors in a single print run. This provides true final product realism and versatility in end-to-end applications.

Stratasys Blog: What are the main benefits to product manufacturers, and how does it help businesses?

Jacobi: The wide variety of material combinations enables manufacturers to create parts  that actually look, feel and function like future products rather than only looking like them. This allows the production of complete products without manual assembly and means product designers can now validate designs earlier in the product development cycle, accelerating time-to-market.

Stratasys Blog: What are the advantages of 3D printing rubber-like color materials?

Jacobi: Stratasys now enables users to 3D print digital materials in a wide range of Shore A values. This unique capability benefits  many popular applications ranging from consumer applications to sporting goods and kitchen gadgets. For example, consumer goods manufacturers require soft touch colored parts and overmolding for applications such as toothbrush handles and hair brush hand grips. In the consumer electronics market, flexible colored parts are becoming increasingly popular for devices like keyboards and remote control devices. Providing these capabilities ensures best final product realism when 3D printing parts.

Stratasys Blog: What are some of the key uses for the new rigid color palettes?

Jacobi: The four new rigid color palettes include a black-white-clear palette that can be used to produce a sleek, reflective sheen,  useful in consumer electronics parts. The color-black-white palettes are ideal to create medical devices, automotive and consumer product housings in popular gray tones with vibrant color components.